Being a Focused Competitor

One of the key buzz words I find myself using in coaching is "Focus."  I am forever encouraging my players to stay focused.  To me a real competitor is focused and does not let anything detract from that focus.  External things, such as relationships or even school work, does not detract from the focus the competitor has while in the court.

Have you ever watched a real competitor play ball?  Look at their eyes.  You can see the focus.  One of the greatest competitors I have every seen was Michael Jordan.  When the game was on the line, did you see frivolity in his eyes or did you see razor sharp focus?  I saw that focus in his eyes that usually followed by figurative daggers in the hearts of his opponent.

How many high school players are focused like that?  I've been fortunate to have a few in my coaching career.  Unfortunately, most high school players are not focused.  I am both amazed and distrought when I see teams who are not focused.  What is even worse, is when their coaches seem to promote a lack of focus by allowing frivolity to be the overwhelming attitude in tight situations.  In fact, I dare say that it is often even encouraged. 

For two years, I had the fortune of working with a truly great coach, Bill Avey of Southwest High School in San Antonio.   Bill would sometimes literally come unglued if he caught his girls even smiling on the court in a tense situation.  His message was that this is not a time to think anything is funny or make light of the situation at all.  It was a time to be focused.  Yes, you can smile out of confidence because you know you are about to remedy the situation or make the play.  But smiling in the way that means, "It's OK that I just screwed up" shows a total lack of focus. 

As the start of high school basketball in Texas is just around the corner, I am focusing on changing a mindset.  I am encouraging my players to be focused.  Yes, I want them to have fun on the court.  But it is a lot more fun to win.  I don't find losing fun.  I don't want them to either.  The time to celebrate is after the win.  Not during the game.  In a close game I never want to have a time out that is simply full of players cheering, dancing,  and jumping up and down.  I have seen that.  And what happened?  They weren't focused on the next play and they lost.   How fun was that?  Wouldn't it have been better to save the cheering, dancing,  and jumping up and down until the game was actually won?  I would even put my money on the fact that had they stayed focused in the timeout huddle, they would have won the game.  Instead, they lost focused and lost the game.

Being a Competitor

Over the years I have come to realize that there are really very few true competitors in the world of high school athletics.  Most athletes think they are competitors because they enjoy playing the game or they like to win.  But is that really what a competitor is?   Are these high school athletes who claim to be a competitor living up to the standards that their coaches and those greats who came before them hold true?  The great John Wooden once said, “If you have one competitor on your squad you will be successful. If you have two you will be competing for the conference title and with three a national title.” He had no idea what four or five competitors on a single team would be like since he had never witnessed it.

As the start of basketball season is just around the corner, I am watching my players to see if I have any true competitors on my team.  In the upcoming blogs, I will be breaking down and writing about what a true competitor looks like.  Hopefully, I will find one or more on my team this year.  I know we will have some talent.  But will we have competitors?  As Coach Wooden so aptly put it, if I can find one competitor then I believe we will be successful and make the playoffs.  If I have two solid competitors, we will go deeper in the playoffs then the program has seen.  If by some chance, I have three, I honestly believe Regionals (and perhaps beyond) is a reasonable goal.

But will we have any competitors?  Or will be a team that is full of those who think they are competitors, but are deceiving themselves?  I sure hope its the first one.  Time will tell.

Working Out

For the first four weeks of school, we have been lifting and doing core work twice a week.  As you can see on the pictures on the side of this page, the girls have been working hard (well most have).  As we are drawing closer and closer to the official start of the season, I am beginning to teach the offenses and defenses we will be using. So far I have given the basic set of the match up zone we will employ.  We have only scratched the surface of this defense, but I am already excited about seeing us play it in real action.  I am very excited about the season and can't wait to get it really going.  45 minutes of athletic period, being in the gym only two days a week with a ball is not near enough.   But our day is coming.   I just hope the girls are as eager as I am.

37 Days Until Basketball Practice Begins

Not that I am counting, but there are 37 days left until basketball practice officially begins.  The girls at Gonzales High School have been working out during the athletic period for the past few weeks and I think we probably have some good players that can turn this program back around.  Now the question is how bad do they want it?  Will they be satisfied with mediocrity or are they really wanting to shoot for the stars and see just how deep into the playoffs we might be able to go.  Only time will tell.

Its now time to start seeing them in more basketball related activities while on the court.  Today we worked on some shooting drills.  Tomorrow will be a weight and flexibility training day.  Then it might be time soon to see how well they pick up the defense.   I, for one, am ready to start teaching the ins and outs of the offenses and defenses we will be running.  I just don't want to leave behind those in volleyball and I also know that some of what I teach will be beyond some of the more inexperienced players.  But I know I have to start putting it in.  I think that will begin on Thursday